"The Temptation of Christ" (1854) by Ary Scheffer In today’s gospel we read that “the Spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him” (Mark 1:12-13).In the desert Jesus encountered beasts and angels. There are wild beasts and angels in everyone of us. But quite often, we fail to recognize the wild beasts in us and refuse to see sin in our actions when there is sin; or we fail to recognize the angel in us and see sin in our actions when there is no sin at all.

It is in the silence and recollection of the desert that we are able to come to terms with ourselves as we really are; where we are reconciled with the beasts and the angels in our lives and begin to experience peace again for the first time. Like Jesus, it is in the desert where we come to know ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, and our divine calling.Notably, the desert was the birthplace of the people of God of the first covenant. The Hebrew people who escaped from Egypt as scattered tribes arrived the Promised Land as one nation under God. It was in the desert that they become a people of God by covenant.

In the course of their history when their love and faithfulness to God grew cold, the prophets would suggest their return to the desert to rediscover their identity, their vocation and their mission as a way of reawakening their faith and strengthening their covenant relationship with God. The great prophets Elijah and John the Baptist were people of the desert: they lived in the desert, ate desert food and adopted a simple desert lifestyle.

Unlike Mark, Luke narrates in his gospel a longer version of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. He recounts the three temptations as: to change stone into bread, to fall down and worship the devil, and to jump down from the pinnacle of the Temple. In each of these three temptations what the devil is saying to Jesus is, "Come on, the end justifies the means." In the first temptation, Jesus had fasted for forty days in the wilderness and at the end of it he was very hungry. The devil puts an idea into his head: "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread" (Lk 4:3). Notice that the first thing the devil does is sow a doubt in his mind: "if you are the Son of God." "Are you really sure God is with you?" The same thing happened in the garden of Eden. The first thing the Tempter said to Eve was, "Did God really say you should not eat of any fruit of the garden" (Gen 3:1). Temptation always begins with a doubting thought. Did God really say this or is it really a sin to do this? Jesus overcame the temptations by refusing to entertain such doubts and by standing on the word of God.Jesus refuses to take the devil's shortcut. The means we employ to satisfy our needs must be in accordance with the word of God. Feeding on God's word is ultimately more important than feeding on bread. "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone'" (Lk 4:4).In the second temptation the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and promises to give him authority over them if only Jesus would worship him. Remember that Jesus was about to begin his public life and was looking for a way to get the whole world to know him and accept his message. Again the devil tempts him to use what he has (his heart, his soul) to get what he wants (the loyalty of the whole world). Again Jesus says no. The end does not justify the means. "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him'" (Lk 4:8).In the third temptation the devil asks Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple as a way to prove that he was the Son of God. Remember that the people were asking Jesus for a sign to prove that he was the Messiah. Jesus wanted to convince them that he was the one. The devil suggested a sensational display of his divine power. Again, use what you have to get what you want. Use your supernatural power to get the people to recognize you and believe in you as the Son of God, the Messiah. And again Jesus says no. "Do not put the Lord your God to the test" (Lk 4:12).We have begun the season of Lent with the impostion of ashes last Wednesday. It is similar to the length of time Jesus spent in the desert overcoming temptation. We make many sacrifices and acts of self-denial during Lent and we fast. We want to pray more during Lent and donate from our surplus to help the poor. All of these things that we do during Lent are an expression of something inside ourselves that we want to do during Lent, give up sin by overcoming temptation.Lent pushes all of us out of our “comfort zones” into a desert of discovery… from a period of darkness into a season of light.We want to give up sin during Lent because temptations conceal from us the true road to wholeness and integrity giving us instead the illusion of a quick and easy way to find what is really good and worthwhile in life. May this Lenten Season allow us to see who we really are – and challenge us to strive towards who God invites us to become.